I would call this past weekend a pretty good success. We did some stuff and with Zoe and crew still in town it was nice to get out and about. But I hit the wall on Sunday and I couldn’t seem to recover. I went to bed, not super early and I am still dragging. I want to claim “under the weather” but I don’t have enthusiasm for anything so staying here at work is just as relevant. But first, the weekend:

All I had planned for Saturday was a quick walk up Signal Hill. I am still thinking about training for our Whitney hike. I took us a while to get going because I was asked to make a tortilla for breakfast. Our walk was really quick. The point was to just get steepness into our bones. After that Zoe had mentioned that she wanted to go see the “Hunger Games” costumes that she heard were being displayed somewhere in LA. We found out that they were on display at the the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Gallery in LA. So we went. It was interesting to see not only those costumers, but the costumes from other movies like Les Miserables. There wasn’t any explanation, like was the material hand made or off the shelf selected. Was that dress really made from scratch or was it bought at a thrift store. So we looked at the costumes and marveled at being close to something real from and unreal experience such that movies are. No pictures allowed. Why? After that short visit we needed a place to eat. CK always like Taco Bell. We headed towards the closest Taco Bell and we ran into huge crowds of people. What the heck was this? Here are some pictures

It turns out that his area is the fashion district of LA. There were hundreds of shops and thousands of shoppers. It felt like they all knew something that we didn’t We got out and started walking around. CK bought some shoes, I bought a pair of 501’s and McKala bought a cover for her iPod. As an example the 501’s I bought cost me 20 bucks. (Normally $40 – $50) We just got out of the car expecting to spend 30 minutes. We were there for several hours. I think everyone had a good time. We will want to come back when we are in a shopping mood. We probably bought stuff that we wouldn’t have shopped for. I had no idea that CK’s shoes had fallen apart, so he needed the shoes. We normally spend $10 for cheap shoes at Target. We spent $40 on some Nike shoes. Were they really Nike? I don’t know. Were they $10 shoes? I don’t know. I know he needed new shoes and he got them. Dakota bought a dress, Xenia bought some leggings. Again a fun adventure. I wish Jenny would have come with us, but we couldn’t have fit her in the car anyway. On Sunday she said that Patrice had mentioned that we seem to always be doing stuff. I liked that compliment. The strangest part of the experience is that it seemed like we stumbled across something that obviously a lot of people already knew about.

I have had some ups and downs and it has been awhile since I wrote anything. I would say that I am mostly up right now. I have found that my job is causing the eb and flow of my emotions. It is Monday and I am stilling riding the wave of a good weekend. I also wanted to catch up with a few pictures that I took. I would have more and better, but we can’t find the charger for the camera battery and so I all I have is a few pictures from Xenia’s phone. I am going to work backwards starting with yesterday.

A month or so ago I had set up for us to go help out at breakfast for the Midnight Mission in LA. It is the center of skid row. It was not a good weekend to be doing this since we had to go move our stuff from AZ and everything else we had going on. I even confessed to Kim that I didn’t want to admit it, but I was wishing we were not doing this. I told her at 11PM so it was a little late to do anything about it but not show up the next morning. We went to bed at midnight and I set the alarm for 5AM. I still had to print out the forms, unhook the trailer, print off directions and get all the kids out the door. Somehow it all came together and we were on the road by 530AM. Since we had helped out at the St. Vincent DePaul center in Phoenix we all kind of had an idea of what was expected. That is why when they asked for volunteers to work in the back Dakota and Xenia jumped at the chance. They ended up cracking eggs for the entire hour and half we were there. The rest of us worked in the dining room. At one point near the end of our shift I was overcome emotionally. I felt it was an honor to be doing this on Sunday morning. We were home by 830AM in plenty of time for church though it was tough to stay awake. I can’t describe what it felt like to be helping with out judgment the most vulnerable and needy of our population. I didn’t care if they were addicted to drugs, criminals, or even bad people. I was just there to help them get a single meal for a single morning. I wouldn’t be anyplace else. Last night I whispered to Kim that I want to go back next week. That may be too much for the kids, or even me, but I want to go back.

As part of our preparation for whitney we walked from Grandma’s house to Seal Beach. We had dropped a car off the night before so that we did not have to walk back. It was 6 miles of walking. It took us about 2½  hours. The reward at the end was to eat at the end of the walk cafe. It was a real treat and expensive ($75). The food was ok, the view was fantastic and the rest was needed.

Before that walk we had gone up to Korea Town for McKala’s birthday. We walked around, there wasn’t much to see. We tried to find a place to eat. One place looked good, but the table setup was intimidating and the prices were too much for us. We ended up just eating at the local mall in their food court. We were the only non-Asians there. It was adventuresome. We spent way to much on McKala’s birthday, but in a way I feel like we spent too little consideration. Sure we let Xenia buy a $30 gift instead of a box of her favorite cereal, but did we celebrate McKala? Did we make it special enough? I don’t know. She is 18 now. She already drives. She says she wants to change, but she knows she does not want to make any effort. I don’t envision success for her in doing that.

I had a much better day yesterday. Again the goal is to keep my job. I do two things. 1. Arrive before my boss and leave after him. 2. While he is here I do nothing but work, except for lunch. That actually made me feel good and made me feel like I had a good day. I rushed home to get to CK’s orchestra concert. Traffic was heavier than I expected and I walked into the auditorium as they were finishing. I was glad I was there, but I wish I hadn’t missed it. And because I was late the other kids did not get to go. I was supposed to pick them up, but instead I had to go straight there. We went to In-N-Out for a celebratory shake. Eric called and I spent too much time talking to him and not paying attention to CK. Afterwards we got home and I ran by Stater’s to get water. I was very touched by the number of people who gave to a man begging out front. One family came out and the father had given each of his kids a dollar to give to the man. The woman thanked the man for calling her girls angels. They were. Very touching. This can be a very good world. So I got home after 9PM and for some reason we have let Dakota finish watching a TV show, “Ever After”  We stayed up too late and though we had prayer we did not read together. We are going camping this weekend. High achieving Xenia doesn’t understand why we would be gone all weekend. I think she wants to practice her violin. She is an interesting child like they all are.